Dan Smethurst has just won the Canadian F1 $15k Futures, beating Kutrovsky 2&3 in the final. He's had an incredible start to the year, and after his 18 points for a Futures title last year fall off at the end of this month, he only has 30 points to defend until November.

27 points for this title will see him to around #270. The top 200 is very plausible if he keeps this up.

Ed Corrie edges Dan Smethurst in a heart-breaking semi-final in Canada F2, 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 - after Dan served for the match and lead for most of the match until the tie-break.

Marcus Willis won the Tipton $10k this week. With the likes of Corrie, Cox and Smethurst abroad the foreigners have dominated this set of British futures (the likes of Milton and Rice have made SFs but I think all three finals were contested by foreigners). He beat Irishman Sam Barry in the final (great week for him), who beat top seed Rice in the SFs.

However Golding and Edmund both suffered shock defeats early on in their tournaments (Oli did bounce back to win the doubles). Both have had pretty good seasons so far though, so hopefully just minor setbacks. Oli was playing the under-ranked Petrovic (very nearly beat Ward in a Challenger SF last year - 0-6, 7-6, 6-0).

Ed has actually done very well to defend the bulk of the points he won early 2013 (where he dominated the British futures) - despite few titles he's consistently gone deep and after this I think he has little to defend for a while, so he's in good shape to crack the top 300 now.

This week Evo faded away in Q2 in Miami (possible knee injury probs), Wardy won only three games in Panama. Kyle lost early in futures v World no 602 last week, but now up a set and a break v Benneteau in Miami.

But on the bright side Dan Cox is into the Rimouski QFs after toppling the 7th seed Vincent Millot (anyone remember him?) and Smethurst made the 2nd round before being edged out narrowly by the 2nd seed Sugita.

I can't see Dan being picked over James given Dan's not exactly set the world alight (not aided by his knee niggle) and James is clearly a far more accomplished clay courter. Kyle will probably be in on reserve again, with Inglot and Fleming as doubles specialists again.

Dan Cox won a US futures last week and Smethurst made the final of a $15k, beating 23yo college graduate (a Brit) Danny Manlow in the SFs (who was previously unranked). Manlow has been blasting through qualies in recent weeks before getting tough R1 draws, but finally got a break this week and battled through to the SFs.

This week:

Oli Golding and Liam Broady (beat 6th and 2nd seed) are into the SFs in Doha $10k.Dan Smethurst is into the QFs in the USA F11 $15k.

And here's an interesting tidbit about Dan's incredible first 3.5 months of 2014:

Among players who have played more than 20 matches this year, Dan's 2014 singles win percentage is now 5th= with Roger Federer, who admittedly has managed it at a much higher level!

He's storming up the rankings. Should break the top 250 soon and at the moment stands a fairly decent chance of making the French Open qualifiers, as well as surely earning himself a Wimbledon WC.

Smethurst is currently 119th in the 'Race', with another 15 points to add on from last week's final (on Monday), plus 3+ from this week and anything he gets from the Sarasota challenger next week (both will be added on Monday week).

Oli Golding is into another Futures final after winning his SF 4&4 today, but unfortunately Liam missed out on making it an all GB final after going down 6-7 in the third, having had match points on his opponent's serve. Heart-breaker.

Dan Smethurst is also into (yet) another Futures final semi-final, coming from a set down to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Dan has also withdrawn from next week's clay challenger, understandably given the amount of matches he's played this year.

Edit: My mistake, was a round early. Dan however IS now into the final, thrashing Kutrovsky 1&3. Pretty damn impressive win against a pretty good player.

Edit: Dan lost to Krajinovic in the final for the second week running. Still, another 30 points gained from the last fortnight and should now break the top 250.